Access to God
There are a number of curriculum packages for children who need specialized help, but finding them, evaluating and testing them in your own Sunday School requires enormous effort, and sometimes can be cost-prohibitive.
IN THE LAST ISSUE OF EMPOWERED, an article entitled ACCESS TO GOD – A CHILD’S JOURNEY generated
considerable
interest. This is a follow-up article intended to provide some practical guidance about how to find the right Bible curriculum for your church -- and your child.
Many times the child’s journey to God finds expression, learning and understanding in Sunday School. Children may hear new voices or see new faces smiling, pointing, forming words, or introducing concepts through games, pictures or activities.
But for those of us who teach and need encouragement, ideas and materials every week, an effective curriculum is everything.
28 EMPOWERED | Winter 2011
Even on a day when time, concentration and Google are all available at the same moment, it’s very difficult to find a curriculum designed specifically for children with special needs. Christianity Today magazine prepared an article on the subject of children’s curriculum for Sunday School, and it includes a section comment at the end on specialized curriculum for special needs children. There you will find a list of curriculum publishers and the internet references for easy access to information provided online about publishers of Sunday School curriculum generally. However, even here, searches through these sources reveal limited resources for learners who need special help. Most publishers offer only a few books, not comprehensive programs. The reference for the article is
ChristianityToday.com. Search on the May, 2008 article entitled “Sizing Up Sunday School Curriculum” by Lynda Freeman.
The article does highlight the special needs curriculum the author finds the most impressive. It comes from Lifeway Publishing, and is called “Special Buddies.” Lifeway also has a package for adults called “Access.” After an interview with Dennis Wiltshire, Special Ministry Consultant at the North Carolina Baptist Association, I learned that almost 200 churches
A Church Leader’s Journey Carole Shields
in North Carolina use the Lifeway product in their Sunday Schools. There is also a Special Buddies Vacation Bible School product.
Of course, what matters is your own child, the children in your church, and giving them the best chance to learn about God. You know your child better than anyone, and you know what communicates best. You also know what mix of children is in your church classes, and you have a sense of what might help the most. Most often, a multi-dimensional approach is most helpful to a child’s learning. Thus, it’s important to carefully review any product for those characteristics before seriously considering purchase.
Again, we’ll use Lifeway’s Special Buddies for review as an example. The philosophy is this: Bible stories are the fundamental basis for the curriculum. Everything builds on the Bible. Every two weeks there is a Bible story introduced, and there are new activities presented to help with the concepts presented by that story. Two weeks are given to concentrate on that story, but there are new activities for each week. There are new take-home materials for the child complete with pictures, games, stories, and other activities. There are also specific suggestions for parents or guardians about how to use them.
While the curriculum allows for a two-week concentration on one Bible story, it also parallels the curriculum of the regular children’s work as much as possible. One advantage is that if there are other children in the home, there is
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